Letters / Hillswick shop “is not a normal business”
An open letter to NCDC
Unfortunately, I will be away when the public meeting about the Hillswick Shop is due to take place. I would seek some clarification on the issues to be discussed. This may or may not prove helpful at the meeting itself or afterwards.
First, isn’t it the case that Northmavine Community Development Company, due to its particular charitable status, is owned and operated by its members – around 160 people who live in Northmavine, I think – who are responsible, albeit only to the tune of £1 each, should the whole project fail?
Isn’t it true that the current group of “trustees”, also known as “the board of directors “, represent those members and the rights of any member of the community to be a decision-making “trustee” were established a few years ago and incorporated in the constitution?
This was, as I recall, necessary to comply with regulations governing charitable status so that NCDC could successfully pursue asset transfers of properties such as the old Urafirth School.
So any decision concerning the future of the Hillswick Shop, for many years the NCDC flagship project and bearer of its establishing motto “we fight da slocking o’ da light” should be taken not by a few unelected “trustees” but by the people who actually are NCDC – by the community of Northmavine.
I can understand the concern over the future of the shop. It is a subsidiary company and according to the most recent public accounts losing at least £30K per year.
In addition, it is in receipt of unsecured loans from NCDC itself and – unidentified in the accounts submitted to HMRC – “senior management personnel”, of around £48K, with no indication of security or payback terms. Any normal business would not survive.
But this is not a normal business. That this situation has been allowed to develop is appalling but understandable.
A number of particular local circumstances have affected running of the shop negatively in recent times, and since the pandemic every rural shop has struggled.
Nevertheless, the sudden announcement that NCDC would “withdraw support” from the shop at the end of this financial year – just over a month away – because it was “not in the charity’s best interests” illustrated a degree of panic I can only surmise stems from an audit of this year’s shop accounts.
But can an organisation which exists to support and sustain the Northmavine community justify the abrupt closure of crucial access to petrol and diesel, coal, groceries and post office services for a vulnerable section of that community?
The folk who cannot drive to Brae to shop at the garage or Co-op, or for that matter, even to Ollaberry? And can it morally do that when it is in receipt of considerable income each year from the Polycrub business, and is sitting on reserves of over £1m?
After all, what is NCDC for? Surely it is to support and sustain the local community, not kill off one of the crucial parts of that community’s life?
There appears to be a loophole offered in the HMRC guidance on this matter, by which an unprofitable subsidiary of a charity which is fulfilling the aims of that charity may continue to operate at a loss.
I would suggest that far from simply closing the shop, NCDC accepts that keeping it open is an absolute priority for the organisation, and looks at restructuring the entire retail operation.
The Ollaberry Co-op, which was established before the Hillswick shop became a “community” operation, may offer a model for the future, or even the possibility of co-operation and integration.
The other options are a private sale, the complete integration of the Hillswick Shop into NCDC’s main operations (this would mean winding up the subsidiary Hillswick Shop Ltd and bringing the shop into NCDC itself) or fully supporting the establishment of a local co-op like Ollaberry, and writing off the loans currently owed to NCDC.
One way or the other, it seems entirely wrong for NCDC to abruptly announce that is closing the shop with hardly any notice, and it behoves the organisation to work responsibly and to the best of its ability to renew and revitalise what is an essential community resource. And not be distracted by concerns over future projects that may come to nothing.
Tom Morton
Hillswick
